War is the most terrible thing in the world.Fleeing Kyiv through the eyes of Polina, a 19-year-old Ukrainian student.
"I woke up early in the morning because of the loud noise of explosions. My mum asked my sister and me to calm down, take only the most vital things and pack quickly. We had to leave immediately. We live on the 8th floor of the 30-storey building, so it was unsafe to remain. We had to get to the ground floor, but using the elevator was risky, so we took the stairs. It seemed that we’d spent ages going down. It was terrifying. I was scared. I had a feeling that something terrible was coming… Unfortunately, I was not wrong…"
"We left our building and got into our car. So many neighbours were also running to their cars with pets, suitcases, and other stuff. It was awful. Nobody could believe that Kyiv would be under attack. But it happened. We had to leave and get to safety. I didn’t want to leave my home. I hope to come back…"
"While we were on the way, we’ve seen lots of people in the streets. It was a big mess, and they didn’t know what to do or where to go. Many cars were trying to escape Kyiv, and we spent much time in the traffic jam. It was terrible to see panicking, desperate people and realize that there is great uncertainty ahead."
"Finally, we arrived at a hostel in Lviv. It took us two days to cover the 550 km from Kyiv to Lviv. We had to stop during the nights as it was dangerous to continue in the dark. Besides, checkpoints were installed very quickly in different regions, which slowed down the traffic. At first, it was challenging to find accommodation, but we were lucky to get a room in a hostel with a good bomb shelter, which I hoped wouldn’t be needed, but I was wrong..."
"Though there were no air attacks on Lviv so far, the air sirens are an everyday reality. We know well what should we do in case of sirens, how to get to the bomb shelter, when is it possible to go out and what basic items we should always keep with us. After several days, I’m used to going to the bomb shelter. It’s horrible to see how my small sister is terrified when she hears the sirens, how she takes her things, and rushes to the shelter, hoping that there will be no rockets reaching us... which was, unfortunately, the case in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Mariupol, Volnovakha, Zaporizhzhia, and many other cities in Ukraine… War is the most terrible thing in the world…"
Drawings and text: Polina Budagovska
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War is the most terrible thing in the world.
